Will probe bring justice in town’s rape scandal? ROBBINS, Ill. (AP) — The rape evidence was stored in the police department’s musty basement: brown paper shopping bags, stuffed with sneakers, bras and underpants, jammed on metal shelves. Scattered blood vials and swabs covered with dust and mold — an inventory amassed over more than 25 years. Cara Smith, a Cook County sheriff’s aide, knew something was terribly wrong the moment she saw the jumble, which included 176 rape kits dating back to ...

JFK 50th: Nation pauses to remember lost president By The Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — Fifty years after John F. Kennedy fell victim to an assassin’s bullet while visiting Texas with his wife, people at home and abroad paused Friday to remember the 35th president of the United States. Collected here are memories of the slain president, details from the day of his death and live updates from the memorial service at Dealey Plaza in Dallas. ——— HOW THE KENNEDY FAMILY REMEMBERED President John F...

JFK: Mementoes kept 50 years mark awful day DALLAS (AP) — The mementoes are everywhere, preserved for five decades by people who wish they could forget: Letters of grief and thanks, in a widow’s hand. An unwanted wedding band. A rose stained with blood. Those who were closest to events on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated still talk about what they witnessed as if it happened yesterday. And they frequently mention a keepsake, some small but often heavy burden they’ve ca...

In reversal, Obama to allow canceled health plans WASHINGTON (AP) — His personal and political credibility on the line, President Barack Obama reversed course Thursday and said millions of Americans should be allowed to renew individual coverage plans now ticketed for cancellation under the health care law that is likely to be at the heart of the 2014 elections. The immediate impact on consumers was unclear, though both industry spokesmen and state insurance commissioners swiftly warned that ...

Should students learn cursive? Some states say yes COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The swirling lines from Linden Bateman’s pen have been conscripted into a national fight to keep cursive writing in American classrooms. Cursive. Penmanship. Handwriting. In years gone by, it helped distinguish the literate from the illiterate. But now, in the digital age, people are increasingly communicating by computer and smartphone. No handwritten signature necessary. Call it a sign of the times. When the new Common ...

Possible sinkhole reported in yard in Florida DUNEDIN, Fla. (AP) — Residents of several Florida homes have been evacuated due to a possible sinkhole that opened in a backyard in Pinellas County on Thursday. Dunedin Deputy Fire Chief Trip Barrs said the hole appeared to be about 12 feet wide when officials arrived on the scene. Residents of the neighboring houses also were evacuated as a precaution. The Tampa Bay Times reports (http://bit.ly/1gOqlel) that the ground is so unstable that two...

TVA to close 8 coal-powered units in Ala. and Ky. The Tennessee Valley Authority’s board has voted to close six coal-powered units in Alabama and replace two others in Kentucky with a natural gas plant. “This is a personal nightmare for me,” said Peter Mahurin, a board member from Bowling Green, Ky. “But I must support what I believe to be in the best interest of TVA’s customers.” Increasingly stringent environmental regulations and flat power demand have made it necessary to rethink how the ...

Attacks, deaths rampant at wild cat sanctuaries PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Over the past few decades, as an exotic pet trade boomed and Americans bought cute tiger cubs and baby monkeys, sanctuaries sprang up across the nation to take care of the animals that were abandoned when they reached adult-size or were no longer wanted. The growth in both the number of wild cats as pets and the sanctuaries that rescued them has led to attacks. Since 1990, more than 20 people have been killed by captive b...

Teacher to plead no contest in lewd ’tasting game’ LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Los Angeles elementary school teacher charged with blindfolding students and spoon-feeding them cookies laced with his semen has agreed to plead no contest to all charges, an attorney for some of the victims said Thursday. Mark Berndt plans to enter the legal equivalent of guilty pleas to 23 charges at a hearing Friday, according to John Manly, an attorney who represents 30 Miramonte Elementary School students and t...

Boston crime boss Whitey Bulger sentenced to life BOSTON (AP) — Former Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger was led off to prison Thursday for the rest of his life, accepting his punishment in stone-faced silence as a judge castigated the 84-year-old gangster for his “almost unfathomable” depravity. Bulger’s sentencing for his murderous reign in the 1970s and ’80s brought to a close a sordid case that exposed FBI complicity in his crimes and left a trail of devastated families whose loved ...

Doctors are told to get serious about obesity ATLANTA (AP) — Next time you go for a checkup, don’t be surprised if your doctor gets on your case about your weight. The medical profession has issued new guidelines for fighting the nation’s obesity epidemic, and they urge physicians to be a lot more aggressive about helping patients drop those extra pounds. Doctors should calculate your body mass index, a weight-to-height ratio. And if you need to lose weight, they should come up with a pla...

Images show woman on Chicago train with alligator CHICAGO (AP) — After tracking down a small alligator skulking in a baggage claim area at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, authorities are now hunting for its traveling companion. The Chicago Transit Authority has released a series of images showing a woman who they believe rode to the airport on a CTA Blue Line train with the 2-foot-long gator in the early morning hours of Nov. 1. Thanks to one of the most extensive surveillance systems...

Police: Man kills 3, then himself in north Phoenix PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix neighborhood became a chilling crime scene when a man killed his wife, their teenage daughter and another family member and set fire to his spouse’s body in the backyard, police said. He then killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Michael Sanders, 53, had been showing signs of angry and erratic behavior in recent months as he and his wife Carol were going through a divorce. It apparently escalated Tuesday ...

US doctors urge wider use of cholesterol drugs The nation's first new guidelines in a decade for preventing heart attacks and strokes call for twice as many Americans — one-third of all adults — to consider taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. The guidelines, issued Tuesday by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, are a big change. They offer doctors a new formula for estimating a patient's risk that includes many factors besides a high cholesterol level, ...

One World Trade Center named tallest US building NEW YORK (AP) — They set out to build the tallest skyscraper in the world — a giant that would rise a symbolic 1,776 feet from the ashes of ground zero. Those aspirations of global supremacy fell by the wayside long ago, but New York won a consolation prize Tuesday when an international architectural panel said it would recognize One World Trade Center as the tallest skyscraper in the United States. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habi...

Longer school days in store for some in 5 states HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Thousands of students in five states will be spending more time at school. More than 9,000 students are attending select, high-poverty schools in Connecticut, Colorado, Massachusetts and New York that have developed expanded school schedules as part of the TIME Collaborative, or Time for Innovation Matters in Education. Some of those schools are already using the extra time for additional instruction and enrichment. A se...

Dazzling Twitter debut sends stock soaring 73 pct NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Twitter went on sale to the public for the first time Thursday, instantly leaping more than 70 percent above their offering price in a dazzling debut that exceeded even Wall Street’s lofty hopes. By the closing bell, the social network that reinvented global communication in 140-character bursts was valued at $31 billion — nearly as much as Yahoo Inc., an Internet icon from another era, and just below Kraft Foods, the...

Minnesota man’s cave collection is his hobby, passion SPRING VALLEY, Minn. (AP) — John Ackerman is a big-time landlord of subterranean real estate. Ackerman, 59, owns Spring Valley Caverns, the largest private cave in Minnesota but just the beginning of his underground empire, which he calls the Minnesota Cave Preserve. He holds the keys to more than 40 miles of caves hidden beneath the rolling farm fields of Minnesota and Iowa and is always seeking more. “I think it’s just to be able to be the f...

Sebelius takes GOP criticism over “Obamacare” WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans blistered Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Wednesday over the nation’s controversial health care law, bluntly challenging her honesty, pushing for her resignation and demanding unsuccessfully she concede that President Barack Obama deliberately misled the public about his signature domestic program. “We’re not in it to just give you a rough time. We’re in it to try and hopefully get it righ...

Why a spike in October unemployment may not be so bad WASHINGTON (AP) — The jobs report for October due out Friday may be bleak. It might even be scary. The unemployment rate could jump by the most in three years. Hiring may slow from an already weak pace. Don’t panic. The ugly figures will reflect the government’s partial shutdown, which coincided with 16 days in October. The trends for the job market will likely reverse themselves in coming months. “It’s going to be a very messy report, and I d...